Not Touch Something With A Ten Foot Pole Meaning

(idiomatic) To be unable (perhaps figuratively) to approach something or someone.

Example: Ambrose Bierce (under the pseudonym Dod Grile), The Fiend's Delight In conclusion, his respect for letter-writing ladies is so great that he would not touch one of them with a ten-foot pole.
1999. David Morefield, The Guardian: I spy, the new 007:
  Serious actors of the world wouldn't touch the part with a ten-foot pole.
Francis Lynde, The Quickening:
  On the contrary, my dear Mr. Gordon, it is because I do know him, or know of him, that I am turning him over to you. You are the one person in the world to obtain that coal lease. I confess I couldn't touch the Major with a ten-foot pole, any more than you could go North and get the cash. But you are his neighbor, and he likes you. What you recommend, he'll do.
Ambrose Bierce, The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8:
  ... the stock's gone up from nothin' out o' sight. You couldn't tech that stock with a ten-foot pole!